Bosch/Hella headlights??

[M3Jimbo]

Hi lads I have the bosch lights in my car, the ones with out the smillies
my local auto spares place does hella lights and can supply me any part of
the light!! i.e lenses, reflector, backs, plugs, ring that goes round the
outside!!!

Can any of you tell me if the hella glass will fit on the bosch body/back?
in fact if any of internal parts an interchangable with the bosch holders?

Or if there not swappable! what cars will i find the hella lights on if i go to the scrappy???





One day i wanna be a Guru!!!

[Simon13]

hellas don't swap with bosch. All E30's came with bosch units i'm pretty sure. The only hella lights i know of are the smoked ones for the E30.

HTH

[cros]

I've seen crome bumpered E30s with Hella lights. Not elipsoid in that case.

The ETK lists both Hella & Bosh for elipsoid lights. They don't list individual parts of the beam unit so it's not possible to tell if they're interchangable.

[M3Jimbo]

thanks for the info!!! might just give it a try!!

[mrLEE30]

I have put hella lenses on bosch lights, when i smoked my bosch lights i dropped a lens (or two) but could only find hella from the scrap yard same as yours i.e. none projector. I did have to modify the light holder slightly with a sqaure file as the diameter is the same (within a few mm) but the glass tabs used to align the lens is in a different place, so it was simply a case of fling new slots into the lens holder in the correct place. but note that i interchanged the main beam light which is flatter wher as the driving light sits more proud. and it seems to be the older cars that have hella lights and for info the main beam lens is same for all older 5 series and 7 series as onlt the driving light was different.

in the picture below you wll see the front set of lights have a bosch driving light and a hella main beam, rear set are both bosch.

mrlee

[M3Jimbo]

Thanks for the info lads thats just about coverd it!!
im gonna do the DIY smoked job and thought it would be a good idea to
change the lenses as you can get them quite cheap as a seperate part!!

Cheers mr lee!! you must know more about these lights than BMW, bosch
and hella all together!!!


Very

[mrLEE30]

Happy to shine some light on the subject!!! ha ha ha

And yes i broke so many of the b@st@rds when smokin my lights i should be fairly clued up by now!!

But on a serious note if your lights are the non-projector (and probably pre-face lift lights) then i done think you can change the lens for a projector type lens. it will (with modification) fit in the holder but the problem arises because the non projector use the glass lens to direct the light so if you changed it for a projector lens the beam of light would not be focused correctly (in the same way you cannot swap the main beam and driving light lenses around)

and finally.... (sounds like the 9oclock news) the hella lenses are a fraction smaller diameter and it was a b@st@rd getting the ring on, and as i had gone to great lengths to paint the Bosch ones black i had to persuade the ring to fit, my advice would be to use a Hella ring with a Hella lens.

with my knowledge and teachings my son you will forfill your goal to achieve head light guru status......patience.....somke the bosch..... it will come

mrlee

[Simon]

hellas don't swap with bosch. All E30's came with bosch units i'm pretty sure. The only hella lights i know of are the smoked ones for the E30.

HTH

My breaker had ellipsoid, non smiley hellas, and my M3 originally had Bosch ellipsoid non smileys, seen quite a few cars myself with Hella, BMW probably used both companies back in the day, or maybe alternated between them.